Why Can't We Be Friends? Mixing Personal & Professional Relationships

Can you / should you befriend clients? Should you take on friends as clients? What are the pros and cons? Just how blurry should those lines between professional and personal relationships be?

Often debated in business circles, with some swearing by mixing friendship and business and others avoiding it like the plague... to mix or not to mix? That’s the question we’re tackling today! 

By the end of this episode, you'll be able to determine for yourself whether or not you want to work with friends, befriend your clients, collaborate with pals, and have a better understanding of how that can look for your unique business.

• The definition of "friend" 
• The varying levels/circles of friendship from inner to outskirts
• Things to consider when befriending clients, having friends as clients, and collaborating with friends in your business 
• Pros and cons of mixing personal and professional relationships
• And more! 

EXTENDED SHOW NOTES 👇🏻

"A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you." – Elbert Hubbard

My friendship filters/criteria: trust, respect, mutual DELIGHT! 

🟢 The Inner Circle
Consists of your best and closest friends. The people you trust with your thoughts, fears, and dreams. You can be fully YOU with these people. You’re comfortable being vulnerable and yourself around these people. This circle is most often small and tight-knit. 

🟡 The Middle Circle
These are good friends, work friends, “business besties”, etc. You might spend time together and likely still have meaningful conversations and share mutual support, but there’s a little distance in terms of frequency or depth. This isn’t a bad thing! It’s impossible to have tons of close or best friends, but you might have a lot in this middle circle. You might share resources with these people and collaborate, but chances are your personal lives aren’t deeply intertwined.

🟣 The Outer Circle (Acquaintances, Loose Ties, Connections)
These are people you might know their name, you may have connected or chatted a few times, connected via social media, and engage from time to time, you may interact with them in business settings, support each other’s work, and professionally refer each other, but you don’t have a personal connection and probably don’t go out of your way to get together beyond business or professional spheres. 

🔵 Situational Friends
Friends come and go. Childhood friends, college roommates, library book club friends, gym friends, neighbors, people you might be connected to either from past or present activities – they’re often situational friends. You’re probably friendly, and in some cases might even get together, but it doesn’t tend to extend past the situation or context you usually see them in. Unless you take some sort of action to deepen that connection, maintain it, or move it up a level. 

4 Pros of working with friends or befriending clients:

• Established Trust & Rapport: You already know each other, making communication and collaboration smoother.
• More Fun & Enjoyable: Working with people you like can make business more fulfilling.
• Shared Values & Vision: Friends often align on values, making decision-making easier.
• Natural Referrals & Growth: Friends want to support each other’s businesses and spread the word.

4 Cons of working with friends or befriending clients:

• Boundaries can become blurry (both personal and professional boundaries)
• It might be harder to deliver tough feedback, or you might not be able be fully yourself 
• You run a risk of showing favoritism or feeling obligated to overdeliver
• If things go wrong, it can impact the personal relationship

Email: emily@emilyaborn.com
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